Spiders

spiders

Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times

Cheryl Hayashi, associate professor of biology at UC Riverside, holds a rose-haired tarantula. Hayashi won a MacArthur "genius" grant for her studies of spider silk, which she says has been around for more than 300 million years. She's hoping to use the award money to study spiders in different parts of the world. "I know there are really cool silks out there," she says.

Cheryl Hayashi, associate professor of biology at UC Riverside, holds a rose-haired tarantula. Hayashi won a MacArthur "genius" grant for her studies of spider silk, which she says has been around for more than 300 million years. She's hoping to use the award money to study spiders in different parts of the world. "I know there are really cool silks out there," she says. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)